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Can Viruses Be Detected? Cohen's Theorem, and Oh - Bruce Schneier too! Do the math, period. | 396 comments | Create New Account
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Can Viruses Be Detected? Cohen's Theorem, and Oh - Bruce Schneier too! Do the math, period.
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, April 25 2012 @ 12:28 AM EDT
Computer Security is an oxymoron.

Regarding Apple, Linux, Microsoft, any OS:
See:
Can Viruses Be Detected?
http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/can-viruses-be- detected

Quote - "Cohen picked up the ball with his Ph.D. thesis in 1986, and extended Goedel's theorem to prove that no perfect virus checker can ever exist. His theorem is devilishly simple, relying on a technique known as "proof by contradiction."
and
Quote - "The real reason virus checkers don't work well is because they are all based on that flawed assumption, that a virus will always look and act the same. They pretend that the needle will always be a needle. In real life, though, computer viruses can mutate well beyond recognition. They modify their own signatures and spread in almost unlimited variations. A truly effective virus checker would have to look for every permutation of the virus signature, and while the possibilities might not be infinite, the problem is too large for a real-world computer to tackle".
and
Quote - "Cohen's Theorem proves that we can never truly find out if our system is harbouring a virus. So how, according to Cohen, can a typical user protect his or her system from disaster?

His answer is simple. For typical computer users, though, it may be harder to swallow than the sting of the virus itself.

Computer viruses proliferate, Cohen writes, because we embrace the very technologies that make them possible".

and
Quote - "The solution Cohen advocates is not a "package" that you buy from a vendor and run in the background. It's not convenient, but he has proven by example that it works. It's an aggressive regimen of education at all levels: system administrators, current users, and future users".
and, then we have Bruce Schneier:
Ain't no network strong enough - Business - Salon.com ,
http://www.salon.com/2000/08/31/schneier/
Quote - "“Computer insecurity is inevitable,” he warns. “Networks will be hacked. Fraud will be committed. Money will be lost. People will die.”

and, another quote from article:

"Schneier ably debunks the magic-bullet claims of every class of product. Firewalls? Too easy to fool with forged requests for access. Intrusion detection systems? Too many false alarms. Digital watermarks? Taiwanese software pirates will simply figure out how to delete them. Biometrics? Please — a clever attacker need only steal a digital file containing thumbprint data, and they’ve got instant access to the nation’s goriest secrets.

The outlook offered by “Secrets and Lies” is so grim that readers might be inclined to join an abacus-using Luddite clan in Micronesia, far from anything as elementary as an ATM or Ms. Pac-Man machine. Schneier sympathizes; he admits that depression forced him to cease working on the manuscript for over a year. “I got two-thirds of the way through the book without giving the reader any hope at all,” he writes. “It was about then I realized that I didn’t have the hope to give.”

SO, them Apple folks that are floating in confidence?

Well, as Apple gets bigger and bigger, the target gets bigger and bigger.

Math, is.. well math, software is math, numbers...! And when you do the math, apply the logic, well, Cohen's Theorem, has never been proven to be in error. So, do the math yourself and what is the lowest common denominator you arrive at regarding computer security?

Conclusion - just because you can do something, does not mean you should do it.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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